Another piece of ‘living history’ appeared in number 22 Hale Street recently when Michael Lee brought his father, architect Lee Thoo Yeow who started his (first) private architectural practice here. Reminiscence and nostalgia co-mingled as 22 Hale Street was where Lee started to conceptualise Poi Lam School (Suwa).
Whilst following right behind the good work that Tan Sri Lee Loy Seng was doing for Chinese education, Lee put his pen and stencil to work and started on Phase I of Poi Lam School (Suwa). The birthplace of the conceptual design of Poi Lam was virtually borne out of 22 Hale Street.
Long before the ubiquitous keyboard and mouse entered our lives, Lee constructed (and coloured!) all his architectural plans ‘manually by hand’ on draughtsman boards/desks similar to this one featured here, exploited natural sunlight and applied ammonia fumes to process architectural plans and using freehand stencilling equipment such as these, in the 60s, 70s and 80s.
